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You have two waves: The spread-out, few episodes at a time with a few bonuses, stringing along the Got-To-Have-It-All-More-Money-Than-Patience people, and then followed up later with box sets for more casual fans.

It's called "maximizing profit". I'm not sure if it's unethical or not.

Hmmm, perhaps the DVDs are going to be packed with bonus material or blooper reels....

My old college roommate is the son of someone high up at Pixar. As he tells it, computer animation technology changes so fast that before each new movie, the animators like to do what's called a "ramp-up project"; a short film done to get the animators really fluent in using the new equipment and software.

So when Pixar was getting ready to do Toy Story II, the animators came up with the idea that as a ramp-up project, they'd animate the voice blooper reel from the original Toy Story.

The full ramp-up project that animated the entire blooper reel will, however, never see the light of day, as some of Tim Allen's bloopers, while hilarious, are very very much not family material...

Like rg4619 said, the 2 episode/disk format itself is not uncommon, but that's generally limited to short 1-cours series (like Haruhi). For a 24 episode series, 3 episode/disk is the more common scheme.

Having to buy 12 DVDs (especially if the price remains "normal" in the 5,000-6,000 yen range) to collect the whole series is quite a hard task even for the most devoted otakus.

One thing to realize is that many Japanese otakus watch their animes recorded (for many of them, it's impossible to stay up until the wee hours just to catch their show), so for a lot of them, buying the DVDs is simply another act of collection, as well as a way of supporting the makers. So for some, it doesn't really matter how many episodes there are on a disk. The more important question would be "how many people out there are willing to pony up their money to collect this?"

Simply put, it's milking. But hey, without it we wouldn't have animes.

Just think of it as an investment towards making CLANNAD better or something.

11 Volumes for Shuffle equates to an 11.5:2 or roughly 6:1 ratio which is just as bad as FLCL. It's quite common I would imagine and each DVD is often way more expensive than the U.S counterpart. That magic 6:1 number keeps popping up so its probably an industry standard to organize it that way.

Yup, exactly. And that's the key -- it's published by Kadokawa. Lucky Star has the same release structure as Shuffle, Karin, Canvas 2, and Mamoru-kun, among other Kadokawa-published 24-episode shows in recent memory. Kadokawa's last two Kyoto Animation projects (Haruhi and FMP:TSR) were also spread over a lot of discs.

So, Toua, it's simply because Kanon was published by Pony Canyon, who chose to release it on 8 DVDs. Kadokawa paid for Lucky Star, and they decided to use their 12-disc pattern. Kyoto Animation doesn't really have anything to do with it, so probably no sense in being disappointed in them.

Getting back to the anime itself, who's your favorite character so far? I like Kona the best, because she essentially drives each scene with her bizarre behavior. However, I have a soft spot for Tsukasa, who is easily the cutest.

Yup, exactly. And that's the key -- it's published by Kadokawa. Lucky Star has the same release structure as Shuffle, Karin, Canvas 2, and Mamoru-kun, among other Kadokawa-published 24-episode shows in recent memory. Kadokawa's last two Kyoto Animation projects (Haruhi and FMP:TSR) were also spread over a lot of discs.

So, Toua, it's simply because Kanon was published by Pony Canyon, who chose to release it on 8 DVDs. Kadokawa paid for Lucky Star, and they decided to use their 12-disc pattern. Kyoto Animation doesn't really have anything to do with it, so probably no sense in being disappointed in them.

And no offense, but why do we care? Does anyone actually plan on buying the R2s in this thread? Actually, I'd be curious... Who is planning on buying the R2 dvds, or, for that matter, would even consider it at this point?

And no offense, but why do we care? Does anyone actually plan on buying the R2s in this thread? Actually, I'd be curious... Who is planning on buying the R2 dvds, or, for that matter, would even consider it at this point?

Is this a general question about purchasing R2 titles? Or are you asking about Lucky Star DVD's in particular? There are people actively posting in this thread who collect R2 DVD's. Many live in Region 2. There are people here who like what they've seen to date from Lucky Star. I wouldn't do it, as I don't have a compatible player, but I imagine several people here would.

Is this a general question about purchasing R2 titles? Or are you asking about Lucky Star DVD's in particular? There are people actively posting in this thread who collect R2 DVD's. Many live in Region 2. There are people here who like what they've seen to date from Lucky Star. I wouldn't do it, as I don't have a compatible player, but I imagine several people here would.

Yup, actually -- I might. I bought 5 out of the 6 other Kadokawa shows I mentioned in the last post on R2 DVD. But the fact that Kadokawa is now actively working on bringing their titles in R1 is a sway in the other direction. If I think it's a sure bet to be licensed/released in R1, then I'm less likely to buy the R2s, of course. We'll see...

Is this a general question about purchasing R2 titles? Or are you asking about Lucky Star DVD's in particular? There are people actively posting in this thread who collect R2 DVD's. Many live in Region 2. There are people here who like what they've seen to date from Lucky Star. I wouldn't do it, as I don't have a compatible player, but I imagine several people here would.

I meant the lucky star DVDs in particular. I'd only consider buying them if I lived in japan, which I don't. Although, actually, I WILL be moving there in the fall, so I might have to rethink my stance on the subject. Well, who am I kidding, I don't have that kind of money .

Getting back to the anime itself, who's your favorite character so far? I like Kona the best, because she essentially drives each scene with her bizarre behavior. However, I have a soft spot for Tsukasa, who is easily the cutest.

I've noticed a fair amount of Kagami fan art. I think she's shaping up to be the series' sex symbol. I'm sure she and Konata will get plenty of unhealthy attention when C72 roles around.

I meant the lucky star DVDs in particular. I'd only consider buying them if I lived in japan, which I don't. Although, actually, I WILL be moving there in the fall, so I might have to rethink my stance on the subject. Well, who am I kidding, I don't have that kind of money .

Once you're local, check the used shops a few weeks/months after the full set is out. Buyer's remorse, or lack of funds inducing a resell hits a lot of otaku just like it does any one else, so good deals can be found if you're willing to wait and then search a bit.

Wow, this show is so pointless, yet I am hypnotized and watch the entire episode with a yearning for more..

There's an old Hollywood formula that involves placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. I often prefer seeing extraordinary or eccentric, funny people in ordinary circumstances. And there is a point to it. You focus on character, dialog, and form instead of plot, and that can be a lot of fun.

When I watched the first episode of Lucky Star, I was reminded of a notorious scene from Haruhi. I liked it a lot, although it didn't go over well with 4chan's anonymous (which just made me like it more). It was the scene with Yuki sitting by herself, just reading and listening to the radio. Absolutely nothing happened. I can't recall if Yuki even moved. But we got a pretty good idea of what Yuki's life was like when the gang wasn't around and a ton of in-jokes from the radio -- most of which went over my head.

Kyoto Animation seems to have a perverse, healthy fascination with the banal, and I really, really like it. Although I doubt Lucky Star will ever get quite as extreme as the Yuki scene, we'll probably get a lot of nothing and a lot of in-jokes -- many of which will go over my head.

@maids: bingo --- nice summation of the sort of stuff that I find fascinating.

@princess of hell ---

Spoiler:

yeah that is hysterical .... a couple of characters in WoW happen to be me playing a female troll and my son's girlfriend plays a male tauren who is my character's consort. My son plays a Forsaken (undead) and acts the "third wheel" part ... And, of course, the roles change with other sets of characters we have.

That's the kind of question that will start a riot. We're trying to come together, not divide each other like Republicans there Sousuke.

That's the theme of 2007, bridging the gap between fanbases and demographics with catch-all series and I think right now just about every series is doing a fairly good job. I'd be hard pressed to think of anything I didn't want to watch just as much as the next series.